1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera and a portable apparatus having a photographing function.
2. Discussion of the Background
In recent years, electronic cameras called digital cameras have been rapidly spreading. The digital cameras photograph an object with a solid-state photographing element such as a CCD (charge-coupled device) photographing element, obtain image data of a still image of the object, and digitally record the data in a small memory medium using, for example, a flash memory or a video floppy disk. The inputting plane of the solid-state photographing element of digital cameras is small relative to an inputting plane of silver-salt film cameras, and therefore it is relatively easy to reduce the size of the digital cameras. The silver-salt film cameras have also progressed to be reduced in size by improvement of the optical systems.
FIG. 14 illustrates a background silver-salt camera. A camera body 101 is shaped in a rectangular parallelepiped shape and constructed such that a photographing optical system 103 protrudes from a side surface of the camera body 101 in the thickness direction. The camera body 101 formed in such a shape is generally held for photographing such that the photographing optical axis of the photographing optical system 103 and the longitudinal direction of the camera boy 101, that is a direction perpendicular to the optical axis, are both horizontal. In the camera body 101 as described above, a release button 102 is arranged at an upper surface of the camera body 101 near a corner thereof when the camera body 101 is held in a standard photographing posture as illustrated in FIG. 14.
The publication of Japanese Utility Model No. 2598790 describes a construction of a camera grip for a camera, in which separately from a first release button, a second release button is provided on the grip. In the grip, a posture sensor is provided for detecting a slanted angle of the camera. The first and second release buttons are selectively switched to be active by the posture sensor.
Recently, as cameras are continued to be made smaller and lighter, for example, by employment of the electronics technology, cameras having a flat camera body as illustrated in FIG. 15 have increased. A camera of FIG. 15 has a camera body 111 having a flat shape, and a photographing optical axis A of a photographing optical system of the camera is arranged in parallel to a surface direction of the flat surface, i.e., in the thickness direction of the flat camera body 111. Because such a flat camera is compressed in size, the camera occupies only a small space when being carried and is conveniently put in a bag or hung from the body, for example, the hand, the arm, the shoulder or the neck. Therefore, as the cameras are further reduced in size and become lighter in weight, camera bodies having a flat shape and a photographing optical axis of a photographing optical system arranged in parallel to a surface direction of the flat surface tend to increase. To photograph with such a flat-shaped camera, the flat camera body 111 is held substantially in a horizontal position. A release button 112 to open and close a shutter for the photographing operation is generally arranged on an upper surface of the camera body 111 as the camera body 111 is horizontally held.
Because the release button 112 is arranged on an upper surface of the flat camera body 111 as described above, it is hard to bring the hand in close contact with the camera body 111 to firmly hold the camera body 111. Further, because the operation direction of the release button 112 is perpendicular to the photographing optical axis, the operation of the release button 112 is likely to cause the camera to be shaken, resulting in a blurred photograph.